The new concert hall with a total area of 28 thousand square meters was built as part of a comprehensive renovation of the Reykjavik harbor area. It is conceived as a kind of multifunctional "hub" in which streams of various guests of the city will meet - lovers of opera and classical music (Harpa will become the home stage for the Icelandic Opera and the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra), fans of modern genres and fine arts, businessmen who have come to conferences and symposia, as well as ordinary tourists starting to get to know Reykjavik. This explains the complex internal layout of the complex: it includes 4 concert halls of different sizes, several conference rooms, an art gallery and a spacious central foyer with many cafes, shops and tourist offices.
The unique facades of the new complex are of particular interest. Created in collaboration with the artist Olafur Eliasson, they resemble a glass and steel honeycomb, perfectly matched to each other. Some of the "honeycombs" are painted in "natural" colors - yellow, green, blue, - thanks to which the transparent mesh of the facade does not seem monotonous. Its perception also changes, depending on the lighting and the time of day - the multifaceted building actively participates in creating panoramas of the center of Reykjavik, constantly bringing something new to them. Harpa's interiors are finished with dark natural stone, which makes them particularly massive. And the main concert hall is designed in bright red and can accommodate 1800 spectators. As conceived by the architect, such a structure of the complex perfectly conveys the originality of the Icelandic landscape: most of the territory of this distant country is bound by glaciers, under them there is stony soil, and in its depths there are volcanoes.
A. M.
